It has been a Year… Wow!

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On August 13, 2010 Gretrude Stroud, otherwise known to us as Memie, went “home” to be with Jesus. She was 95 and ½ and had lived a wonderful life. It was amazing how God worked out our schedule that week, so we would like to share a few details of the week:

  • Neal’s dad had deep brain stimulation surgery (in Baton Rouge) to help with his Parkinson’s disease on August 9 and 10 (Monday and Tuesday). Tuesday, during the surgery, Jennifer called Neal to confirm that the doctor agreed with us that she was indeed pregnant.
  • Neal dropped his Dad off in Pineville on Wednesday, leaving him with Clint, his brother, who drove down to stay with their dad for a couple of weeks.
  • After talking with Neal’s mother, they decided, with God’s prompting, it was time to head toward KY. With a 12 hour drive, they decided to break up the trip and plan to arrive on Friday afternoon, expecting Memie to have already passed.
  • We left on Thursday afternoon and stayed in Jackson, TN. On Friday, after a quick lunch in Nashville with our friend/musician, Andrew Greer, we started on the last 2 hours of our journey.
  • As mentioned, we did not think Memie would still be with us when we arrived on Friday afternoon, but she was and Neal got to spend the last hour and a half of her life here on Earth with her. Although she was not “alert,” after talking to her, she moved her leg and closed her mouth. We believe she indeed heard Neal talking to her (as well as the rest of the family). The grandfather clock struck 6 pm and before it was finished counting, Neal’s Aunt Betty saw a tear roll down Memie’s cheek and she stopped breathing.
  • We had been praying all week that we would be able to just make it to the funeral. We never thought we would see her alive one more time. It was more than what we could have asked for, God is so good! We can’t thank Neal’s family enough for the care and love they gave Memie over this last year and especially the last few weeks that were so tough.
  • Karen and Neal spoke at her funeral, reading Proverbs 31:10-30, The Virtuous Woman, and then sharing stories that related to some of the passage. She lived up to this passage of scripture in so many ways.

More Changes in my Life!

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It has been an interesting 11 months, full of changes:

1) My dad, who has Parkinson’s Disease decided to have a Deep Brain Simulator implanted to help in managing his disease. This decision has meant a lot of trips to Baton Rouge for me and a chance to hear some funny stories of his youth. It has also taught me a lot of patience.

2) In August, the week dad had this surgery, I lost my Grandmother Stroud who was almost 96, otherwise known to me as my Memie).

3) In October, we announced that we were expecting our #2 child.

4) That same month my mother retired and moved to Florida (actually it was November when she moved). She is no longer just 8-12 hours away, but has enjoyed telling me how warm it is, especially when we were freezing in January!

5) In February, I turned 40 (yea, I don’t act it, so that really wasn’t much of a change)

6) On March 1, 2011, Caleb Gene Breeding was born.

7) And the latest change in my life happened on March 15, 2011, when I turned in my resignation as the Director for Information System at Louisiana Tech University’s Alumni Center. I’ve been an employee of Louisiana Tech for almost 15 years and I have grown to love the University that I graduated from even more than I did when I was a student.

I will be starting a job with Donnie Bell Design on April 11, 2011 as a web programmer for them. Be sure to visit their site, blog, Twitter feed, and Facebook page!

 

 

Photos from the last Two Weeks

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Recent Photos from the last two weeks:

  1. https://picasaweb.google.com/nealbreeding/20110304?authkey=Gv1sRgCKeF0Z6L-ZEW&feat=directlink
  2. https://picasaweb.google.com/nealbreeding/20110303?authkey=Gv1sRgCJToh7fIlveCjgE&feat=directlink
  3. https://picasaweb.google.com/nealbreeding/2011030202?authkey=Gv1sRgCOPc89uRhJWeVA&feat=directlink
  4. https://picasaweb.google.com/nealbreeding/20110301?authkey=Gv1sRgCPuA-MDgg4-cOw&feat=directlink

 

Introducing…

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Update for Caleb

Breif history for the day,  Jennifer was scheduled for the second C-section of the day, but she got bumped due to an emergency C-section.  Caleb waited patiently until 11:15 am (March 1, 2011) to show his 7lb 7 oz 19″ self!

He had a little problem exspelling all of the flued from the lungs and his color wasn’t great, his respirations were a little fast as well, so off to the NICU he went (just the one in the hospital, no transfer this time to another hospital).  He hung out there most the day and as of 8 pm tonight he has been released on probation to the regularly nursery. If he behaves he can stay, if not, he will be sent back to the NICU. 🙂 — We are encouraging him to behave, ha!

Click HERE to see photos!

More to come later…

Photos of the Disappearing Wall Bed

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Baby Breeding #2 is inheriting Caden’s Dr. Seuss room and Caden is inheriting our former “guest” bedroom.  We had we had a really nice big Queen size bed in this room, and we hated to lose it.  The solution we came up with was for me to build a Murphy style bed.  The one I selected is called Disappearing Wall Bed.

Although it is not 100% complete, it is ready to go. I still have some touch up paint a few other minor adjustments to make on the bed.  As for Caden’s room, I still have some additional painting and new baseboards that I need to install.

Here are few photos from earlier in the week and yesterday.

 

 

Enjoy!